By D N Singh
The fire over the radical state initiative of recruiting youngsters in the army has just started. Regardless of the defense placed forward for this fresh effort to have as many as 46,000 near teenagers making them combat ready has sprang many questions.
And that too, every year which can throw up a proliferating number of unemployed after each four years.
Once, let go, where they shall be or what kind of occupation they would be fitting into.
And the fire of protest opposing it has already spread all over the country, virtually. From East to South and a bit fiery in the northern states.
The general outcry is, what after the completion of four years of service, a question that can agitate even the minds of common men. Can all of them be reinstated in suitable fields not incompatible to their combating backgrounds.
At the end of the four years, what becomes of the three out of four combat-ready, young Agniveers who are let go?
Can it be said that, the army discipline would suffer some trivial repercussion.
The government of the day has some consolations to offer like, their reinstatement in the army or more such suitable fields.
But one cannot overlook the contrarian aspects, after four years of army job, once they retire at a prime and dangerously tender age of 21-25, will such “Angniveers’ remain unemployed or lethal street fighters. Or whether they can be motivated to turn as disciplined young workers for the society.
This is perhaps for the first time ever that such a radical initiative has been taken. The question is, has the step for such a scheme taken in haste and subsequently can be disruptive also?
Agnipath is a radical state initiative under which as many as 46,000 near-teenagers will be trained to become deadly combatants every year. But a mere four years later, three out of four will be ‘retired’.
The army or the theatre of war is different where one requires to be experienced with quick resilience and face the most adverse conditions in life. Can the raw youngsters match that of the grit of an experienced one.
After being cast in the heat of discipline and rigors of honesty, can the retired young dropped from army get along with the odds of greasing the palms of officials at various sectors or tune themselves to the corruptions in civilian recruitments.
The situation they would arrive after four years may let them grope in the dark of a sense of a wronged victim.
Better, if at all to go ahead with the Agniveer scheme or it getting weeded out but, the government must give a roll-call and rope in the private sector on a war scale for an ‘Agninaukri’ (jobs on fire) blitzkrieg. Each Agniveer should get a job with the best fit, whether he ends up being a foreman in an auto factory, a guard at a security agency, a physical instructor in a school, or whatever.
But that is a goal post that looks very, very far off.
